I assembled the hutch and file cabinet shells using the doweling jig. That was a bit of work, but turned out okay. I then cut all the face frame pieces, and delayed quite a long time while deciding how to join the pieces together. After looking around, it seemed like pocket screws were the easiest. My local lumber store had the Kreg K4 jig master system. After a read through the manual and watching a couple demo videos online, I was off and running. It’s wild how quick and easy this is compared to dowels. I have the face frame on the hutch shelves and one of the file cabinets. I assembled the face frame for the other file cabinet, but ran out of screws before I could attach it to the shell. 🙂 Oh, I attached front strips on the adjustable shelves, as well.

Sigh… Six months later and I finally resumed this project. I beveled the edges of the file drawer cabinet tops and made rabbets in the back, inside edge of the cabinet sides to eventually receive the 1/4″ plywood back. I delayed deciding on the exact joining method until today. It was down to either bis-kits or dowel pins, and I settled on the latter. My bis-kit tool is a router attachment, which has no way to cut grooves into the face of a surface (i.e. a shelf edge joined to the middle of a cabinet side). So I ordered a dowel hole cutting jig. At my project pace, it should get here in plenty of time before my next bit of progress. 🙂

My thanks to Stefan for checking in on the project status. After I got over the initial embarrassment of lack of progress, I took a picture of the current state.

These are all the plywood pieces for the lateral file cabinets and file hutches (two of each, as I’m making a pair in one go). I bought all the lumber from the local lumberyard, and my Dad helped get it to my house in his trailer. My wife even provided a hand with the initial cuts of the 4’x8′ sheets.

Polyboard is awesome! It let me visualize and and adjust my project before making a single cut. The tutorials on wooddesigner.org guided me through the design, measurement and cut-out phases. Ness, Stefan and the community of woodworkers answered all my questions in the web site forum.

I look forward to assembling these pieces and finishing the project soon. My office could really use the finished product!

Thanks for checking up. I’ve been mulling over the design some more, but believe I have settled on the final look. Here’s my updated project file with two versions of the piece. The one on the left is how I want it to actually look, but I had to do some awkward modifications to imitate the look of a face frame. Ignore the drawer design, as I was just filling those sections quickly. The one on the right is the actual design of the file cabinet carcase (lower section). I’ll attach a face frame (3″ at the bottom and 1.625″ on all remaining front edges. That will hide the heavy-duty slide rails for the file drawers. The carcase design mirrors the bookshelves I recently completed, with all weight supported by the base of the two sides that sit directly on the ground. Do you think I still need another vertical division from the middle of the bottom “shelf” and the floor? I don’t think that would actually bear any weight.

I added a plinth to the one on the left, originally on your suggestion. That gave the look of the bottom face frame I wanted. However, there wasn’t anything structural from it that I wanted or needed structurally. That’s why I kept it flush with the sides and front. The design on the right has no plinth.

The mix of 3/4″ materials in the file cabinet on the left was only to show distinction between components in 3D display mode. I’ll use as few different material types as possible in the actual project: birch-faced plywood and poplar, most likely.

I need to redo my original drawer design for the unit on the left. Once that is done, I’ll start writing up my cut list based on a combination of the two separate designs. Clumsy, but functional.

Kurt

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February 6, 2015 - 6:23 am

Hi Kurt,

Your project is looking good.

In the lower element you have used 3 different materials of 19mm with the inner uprights and shelf in a different material than the surrounds, is there a reason for this?

How are you thinking of supporting the lower element?

If you only have it resting on the plinth you might consider adding a few extra parts to make a frame behind the plinth like we did on the plinths of Christopher’s bar.

This will make the plinth frame a separate element on which the lower cabinet will sit.

LOL No version control system here… I just needed to use something as it would start to get very confusing!

I’m at work at the moment, so I cannot view your project, but I will over the next few days.

Cheers!

Christopher

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January 31, 2015 - 9:43 pm

Thanks for all the great feedback, Ness. I think I’ve incorporated everything into this revised design. No version number in my project file name, though Christopher does set a good example by using them. What do you bet he even has them in a version control system (subversion?).

Kurt

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January 29, 2015 - 2:05 pm

Hi Gurt,

Thanks for posting your project.

Here are a few suggestions:

For the bottom unit:

Consider adding a plinth

If you are going to use hardware drawer sliders you’ll have to make a gap of 12.7mm between the drawers and the sides

Consider assembling the drawers differently. I’d suggest you use some of the examples on the forum, ie. Christophers Bar unit has drawers assembled with tongue and grooves and a thinner recessed bottom

The rebated side to assemble the bottom is not necessary

The back needs to be grooved or rebated into the sides and top.

For the top unit:

It would be better if the face frame was over passing the sides and top

the back will need assembling into the sides and top

the top would be better under passing the sides

the frames styles would be better extended to the top

consider using adjustable pegs holes for the shelves (see again Christophers Bar)

Here’s my first cut at the lateral file drawer with hutch shelves that I mentioned in my introduction post. The set on the right is my attempt to reproduce the original design I found online, while the set on the left is my modified version with pencil drawers and an additional shelf. Ignore the actual material types. I just picked stuff to show a distinction between the various parts. No matter what the materials end up being, I’ll probably paint it all white in the end.

Today I added a “face frame” to the hutch shelves using the double back method described in the face frame cabinets thread. I’m still mulling over the latest reply from Ness to see how I can incorporate it into the file cabinet design.